Annual accounts software for bookkeeping firms and bookkeepers

The short answer

Yes, a bookkeeping firm or independent bookkeeper may prepare the annual accounts of a client and file them on that client's behalf. The law does not prescribe who prepares them; the board is responsible. What is not allowed: calling yourself an accountant and issuing an accountant's compilation report. The title accountant is protected (art. 41 Wab, the Dutch Accountancy Profession Act).

What a bookkeeping firm may and may not do

Staff who work under the direct responsibility of an accountant may use designations such as assistant accountant. This also follows from art. 41 Wab.

Which statement fits the annual accounts, then?

A bookkeeping firm has three options:

1. No statement. For micro and small this is legally permitted; the annual accounts are the board's annual accounts.
2. A statement following the model of its own trade association. NOAB members work with their own models, which also refer to Standard 4410. Such a statement is not an accountant's statement; state this clearly to the client and the bank.
3. Cooperation with an accountant, who carries out the compilation engagement under their own responsibility and issues the report.

If a bank expressly asks for an accountant's compilation report, only the third route is suitable.

The independent bookkeeper with a handful of BVs

Many independent bookkeepers handle the administration of sole proprietorships and a few BVs. For the sole proprietorship, vof and maatschap there are as a rule no annual accounts under Title 9 Book 2 DCC and no filing; the annual figures serve the income tax return. For the BV, Title 9 does apply, with a filing obligation.

That is where annual accounts software pays off: with the BVs. In Jaarrekening.io the annual accounts route follows Title 9 Book 2 DCC for the BV, the NV and the cooperative, and for foundations and associations that fall under art. 2:360(3) DCC. For sole proprietorships, the bookkeeping and the taxes are intended to be in the same platform.

What Jaarrekening.io offers a bookkeeping firm

• Importing an XAF audit file or trial balance from the client's package, with RGS mapping.
• The size class from the figures, with the exemptions that follow from it.
• Drafts for the notes, with amounts from fixed calculation rules.
• A publication version per size class and an XBRL file as a validation candidate, which you have checked with SBR software or by an accountant.
• Templates for engagement letters for administrative services (contract for services, art. 7:400 DCC) and for tax returns. The template for a compilation engagement is expressly only for accountants.
• A fixed price per set of annual accounts: € 250 for micro and € 500 for small, excl. VAT.

The platform submits nothing to the KVK or the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration). You file via the KVK portal or with SBR software; tax returns go via Digipoort with filing software or an intermediary, or via Mijn Belastingdienst Zakelijk.

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